Our Gitanjali presents English translations of several poems from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali paired with the songs sung in the original Bengali and improvisations in the songs’ corresponding ragas, intertwining Tagore’s exquisite verses with the music that brings the poetry its full emotional resonance. In this show, vocals and narration by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee, both originally from Kolkata, India, are accompanied by sweeping strings and accordion harmonies. Over the course of the show, the performers share stories and personal experiences that illustrate the enduring power and relevance of Tagore’s creation.

Our Gitanjali is a two-hour show that takes audiences on a spiritual journey via the music and poetry of legendary Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. In 1912, Tagore published a book of devotional poems called Gitanjali, and the work was so impactful in Europe that he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. However, Western readers of Tagore don’t always know that many of the poems in Gitanjali were originally lyrics of songs that Tagore composed, songs which are still known and beloved in Bengal today.

Our Gitanjali presents English translations of several poems from Gitanjali paired with the songs sung in the original Bengali and improvisations in the songs’ corresponding ragas, intertwining Tagore’s exquisite verses with the music that brings the poetry its full emotional resonance. In this show, vocals and narration by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee, both originally from Kolkata, India, are accompanied by sweeping strings and accordion harmonies. Over the course of the show, the performers share stories and personal experiences that illustrate the enduring power and relevance of Tagore’s creation.

Along the banks of a river, people wash clothes, sing songs, and tell stories. Spices, fabrics, and melodies are carried downstream, and villages are woven together by the current. The Shatt Al-Arab, the Nile, and the Jordan converge at Lake Michigan as Chicago Folklore Ensembles explores the music and stories of master musicians from Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine.

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform Where Rivers Meet on Sunday, April 28, 2:00-4:15pm in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago. This show presents music and stories of master musicians who immigrated to Chicago from the Middle East, and features Amro Helmy from Cairo, Egypt; Mary Hazboun from Bethlehem, Palestine; Edward Hanna, from Basra, Iraq; and Baha’a Abu-Taha, from Jaffa, Palestine.

This show is free and open to the public, made possible by generous donations from numerous supporters after the show’s premiere last year. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

This is the final performance of Where Rivers Meet currently scheduled, so it’s not a performance you want to miss!

Chicago Folklore Ensemble’s new show, Gitanjali: Song Offerings, will premier on November 3, 2018, at Second Unitarian Church, 656 W Barry Ave., Chicago, at 7pm.

Gitanjali: Song Offerings is a two-hour show that takes audiences on a spiritual journey via the music and poetry of legendary Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. In 1912, Tagore published a book of devotional poems called Gitanjali, and the work was so impactful in Europe that he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. However, Western readers of Tagore don’t always know that the poems in Gitanjali were originally lyrics of songs that Tagore composed, songs which are still known and beloved in Bengal today. Gitanjali: Song Offerings presents several poems from Gitanjali paired with the songs sung in the original Bengali, intertwining Tagore’s exquisite verses with the music that brings the poetry its full emotional resonance.

Tagore’s songs were taught to the instrumentalists in the ensemble by Subhajit Sengupta, the founder and lead singer of Chicago’s Bengali folk band Ochin Pakhi. In this show, vocals and narration by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee, both originally from Kolkata, India, are accompanied by sweeping strings and accordion harmonies. Over the course of the show, the performers share personal experiences that illustrate the enduring power and relevance of Tagore’s creation.

We will be performing our new show, Where Rivers Meet: Songs and Stories from Masters of Arabic Music, twice this June as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks series! Both shows will be free and open to the public.

June 16, 2018, 2pm – Marquette Park, 6743 S Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL

June 22, 2018, 6pm – Gompers Park, 4222 W Foster Ave, Chicago, IL

We have a few other free performances of Where Rivers Meet this spring:

Thanks to several generous small donations from our supporters, we will also be organizing additional free performances of Where Rivers Meet this summer, so stay tuned!

In addition, we have been continuing to perform our kids’ show, Follow the Butterfly, at various Chicago area public schools through our collaboration with Urban Gateways, and we have a few performances of Follow the Butterfly coming up:

April 20, 2018, 10am – Earth Day performance at Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. Contact Old Town School for ticketing information.

Where Rivers Meet is a show of Arabic music and storytelling that takes listeners down the rivers of the Middle East. String ensemble and storyteller accompany master musicians from Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine who share melodies and memories passed down in song and story.

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will have the honor to perform excerpts from The World in Chicago at TEDxUChicago on Saturday, May 6, 2017. The event starts at 10:00 AM and Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform at 2:30 PM. Buy tickets here.